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BEEMAN'S BLOG -SEASON 3 - EPISODE 21 - "INTO ASYLUM"

WARNING: YOU COULD END UP IN AN ASYLUM IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED FOR THE SPOILESR CONTAINED HERIN!!!

Tonight’s episode was written by Joe Pokaski. It was directed by our long-time line producer, first time HEROES director, Jim Chory.

As I mentioned last week, production of this episode underwent a unique and somewhat stressful situation. Because Bryan Fuller’s script for last week’s episode #20 was, initially, too complex and expensive – it was determined by the powers that be that episode #20 would be delayed and that this episode - #21 – which was leaner and more easily produce-able - would be moved up.

This type of switch-up is not unprecedented, but like all TV shows, we have a very tight and very specific prep period on HEROES… About eight days total to find all the locations, set all the new cast, and decide how all the special effects, action and other aspects of the scenes are going to be produced. Now Episode #20 had already been being prepping for two days when this decision was made… This posed a problem for Joe Pokaski, because at the time this decision was made, there was a strong outline for this episode, but there was no script. So prep began on this episode with an outline only… Joe started to write as fast as he can, but if I remember correctly – they prepped on a Thursday and Friday with the outline only and Joe trying to pound out the script between meetings… Joe had to write the whole script over the first weekend, and we producers got it at about 1AM on Sunday night. Monday was day 5 of 8 days of prep.

I must commend Joe, because given these conditions; the first draft was in excellent shape. Everyone was pretty nervous behind the scenes, because, even though the outline was strong, there is not always a one-to-one correlation between outline and script. If the first draft didn’t sing – there would be almost no time to correct it.

I was struck by the emotional strength of the scenes. The structure has a greater simplicity than most of our stories. Essentially it is three two-character stories – Angela/Peter, Nathan/Claire and Sylar/Danko (with a little HRG thrown in) there were many more two-character pure-dialogue based scenes than we ever usually get. This can either work – if the writing is strong – or can fall flat and get boring if it’s not. Obviously, you will be your own judge of whether the episode works or not – but it worked for me.

Given the crazy-short prep, it was lucky Jim Chory was at the helm. Jim has been the line producer since the beginning of HEROES. I never mention him on the blog because he’s paranoid or something and always threatens to sue me if I even mention him…. But I told him, that since my blog is primarily about direction, that when he directs I can’t help but mention him…. Anyway, Jim is an organizational mastermind. He is the force behind the scenes figuring out how to put together the crazy schedules, balancing manpower and cast and even cast requests for time off and publicity, etc. etc…. So if ever there was someone to figure how to prep an episode in only three days – it was he.

Jim is not new to directing. He has directed episodes of AMERICAN DREAMS and THE DISTRICT, two shows he worked on before…. And he has an immense amount of experience prepping EVERY director on this show and those. But he hadn’t done a HEROES before. I think he thought the rest of us producers were nervous, but we really weren’t. We assumed he’d do a great job. Maybe he was nervous, wanting to do great, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I think Jim did a great job. He’s a maniac on set. He is completely organized and knows every shot and every angle he wants. He pushes like crazy and was getting an incredible number of setups a day. A setup is what we call every distinct shot. If you use two cameras at a time you can get two setups. If you use three you can get three. For myself, I tend to do longer shots and get less coverage (i.e. setups) in a day. A lot of days, using two cameras only a few times, I’ll get twenty-two to thirty setups a day. Allan Arkush likes having more choices of sizes and shots in the cutting room so he gets closer to forty. That’s a lot…. (Now remember on a typical day we will be doing three or four scenes that add up to six, or so, pages – so twenty to forty shots is all you get to tell all those stories) Anyway – Jim was getting some crazy number of setups a day – like seventy!!! It was insane. It was good, because when we got into the cutting room – if I ever said, something like, “Oh man, I wish we had a closeup of Nathan once he walks over to this side of the room” the editor (Scott Boyd) would say, “We got it!” No matter what angle I could think of Scott would say “We got it.”

Besides getting a bazillion and a half shots per day, Jim also really concentrated on performance and made a point of intensively directing the actors. This was a good idea and, in my opinion, resulted in some excellent scenes. My overall favorite storyline is between Sylar and Danko – there are a lot of really meaty scenes in that story and a lot of great twists and turns.

Interestingly, Tijuana, Mexico was filmed in Venice California – on many of the same streets used by Orson Wells when he filmed Venice for Tijuana in TOUCH OF EVIL. If you’ve never seen this movie do so – it is, for me, a seminal movie. In film school I studied and copied this movie’s style – and the long takes, the low angle wide-angle masters in which actors recompose themselves in shots are still techniques I frequently go to when staging scenes. Allan Arkush recently gave me as a present a new director's cut of this film recently released from Criterion. It is based on a 58 page memo Wells wrote upon seeing the studio re-cut of his film, the film has been restored to his original vision and has been released posthumously You should see it.

Now, while on the one hand, moving the production of this episode up a week resulted in stress during production – it also resulted in less stress in postproduction. Because last week’s episode had been delayed in shooting – it had to be rushed through post production… As I remember, we had only 9 days to lock the picture and the visual effects of Ali Larter Freezing, etc. had to be turned over very quickly. Here the opposite was the case, especially since there were substantially less visual effects than in most episodes. There was a nice long time to edit this one, and every producer who wanted to, really got to have their turn with the film.

There were also a number of scenes omitted or drastically reduced. There was a subplot in which Noah Bennet took Micah under his wing (I’ve included a couple of photos of these scenes)… There was a follow up fight in Tijuana, where Claire and Nathan got assaulted by the college students they’d been drinking with. This was funny, because, in order to defeat them, drunken Nathan flew. There was also substantially more to the church scenes with Angela and Peter, including a scene where Peter flew to avoid the agents. These were all great, but the first editors cut was over ten minutes too long and so – in the end – they had to go.

OKAY ONTO “LOS PICTUROS”:

ADRIAN GIVES HAYDEN WHAT'S WHAT IN MEXICO

ALI LARTER IN “HOT HOT HEAT”

CHURCH

FLIGHT

HAYDEN AND ADRIAN IN “MEXICO”

HIRO AND BABY MATT (from last week but TOO cute!!!)

HIRO AND BABY MATT 2

HRG AND MICAH IN AN OMITTED SCENE

CREW WORKS ON OMITTED MICAH SCENE (they didn't know it was omitted at the time or they might have objected)

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NATE GOOODMAN A PICTURE OF DIGNITY

HRG CONFESSES TO LIKING THIS EPISODE

JIM CHORY DIRECTS THE CAST

MOTHER ANGELA

MAS CACAHUATE’S POR FAVOR

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Anonymous said…

OMG! Tonight's episode was fantastic! I just loved the Sylar sequences and the Claire/Nathan sequences. I can't wait till next week!!

Loved the epi , especially the nathan/claire scenes ,and i wonder with such a funny cast like the one you guys have , why we dont get in the DVD's some bloopers or BTS :/ and i really want to see the bits that got deleted in this epi , great work guys it didnt seem slow , me liked it .

This was one of my favorite heroes episodes (well since last week's!).

I really want to pass along some kudos to Mr. Pokaski - Excellent dialouge - I loved how he has given the characters more emotional depth!! The scene with Nathan talking about how things should have been different with he and Claire, despite his drunkeness (or maybe because of it) really displayed the person inside that he desperately wants to be.

Also, the scene in the church where Angela is in the confession booth, and begins confessing details of her past life to Peter really edifies and solidifies her character's actions and emotions.

I found this episode was one where I really could connect with the characters and understand who they are, like in a real relationship.

Hats off to you, Joe Pokaski!

And of course to Greg Beeman - we your readers love you man - so many interesting things to learn and titilate our minds with - keep it up!

This episode was fantastic, and the script surprisingly strong for having been more or less rushed out. Kudos to Joe P.!

It's always a treat when well-loved characters take a time-out from the break-neck speed action and give us those moments of real emotion. I think it goes a long way to make them relatable to us, and it certainly was the case this week with Angela, Claire and Nathan.

I really hate it when writers put shape-shifters or illusionist into a show, because you never know what is real anymore. It should always be avoided in screenplays and TV scripts because stories and characters never advance character-wise, because of this writers' crutch. It's like the lame Star Trek TNG time-loop plot device, where dramatic events occur to your characters, then get reset back to the beginning of the show because time gets reset. I hope this Sylar power goes away somehow.

Well played, Heroes, well played. I thought this episode was great. Many thanks to the writers for taking the time to flesh out characters and explore new dynamics instead of just stringing the characters along for whatever plot point comes along. Claire not getting drunk, Sylar and Danko's interaction, Angela's exhaustion but willingness to keep going... all made of complete and utter win!

The only thing that could have made this ep an A++ was Sylar getting busy on the dance floor. Even if it was actually the shapeshifer, that would have been priceless to see. Oh well, the club scene was still awesome anyway. Danko may be an idiot for letting Sylar take a shiny new ability, but props to Zeljko for making the guy more entertaining to watch! I was wary about the teamup, but oddly enough, it worked in a way.

I can't wait to see how things are going to shape up to mirror the 5YG universe, because obviously things won't be exactly the same. Thanks so much for the behind-the-scenes info, Greg! Part of me wishes that the scenes with HRG and Micah were included, but they could have added too much to the episode. I still hope Micah (and Monica!) return sometime in the near future :)

By far the best episode since the first season. I appreciate the work you guys clearly put into the show, but the simplicity of the plot and as you say, you didnt spend so much time on it, may be for the best.

Good good episode, not many action scenes or powers but it really makes you understand the characters. The Petrellis were pure gold ( all of them. I loved Peter praying in the Church, talking to God, and Angela showing her soft side. Nathan's drunken scenes were priceless, and gave somehow a continuity to season 2, when he missed Peter so much that he was drunk mos of the time. Claire looks beautiful and it was so nice to see her with her bio dad for a change, 'casue it was allways about her and Bennet) Sylar and Danko vs the Shape Shifter was great to see: both Zach and Zeljo are great actors. I wonder what's going to happen now that Sylar has this power, 'cause it screams "5YG". I really, really liked the episode. And once more, Mr Beeman, I beg you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE to contact me if you can. I'm in contact with many fans here in Spain and in Latin American countries, and we love the show. We want to be a part of it with American fans, and I have some interesting ideas about how can we do it. And we've also come with a few interesting ideas for Season 4 ( me and a another friend ) We'd liekto share them with you. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you read this, you can contact me at:

oooaaappss@hotmail.com

Thanks a lot for making this awesome show. Oh, and tell Adrian his Spanish at the beggining of the episode was good good good ( I really loved to hear him speaking my mother language )

Another fantastic episode - Pokaski's script was immaculate, and Jim Chory did an AMAZING job his first time out! Sure he's done other TV, but Heroes isn't like the others; from what you've said, it's a lot more challenging (and I hope more rewarding). By the way - according to the chryon, Nathan and Claire are NOT in Tijuana (which would have made sense) but in Patzcuaro, which is like 400 miles to the south - almost to Panama! I thought that was a hell of a long flight... unless Patzcuaro is also the name of a suburb of T.J. I don't know! :) Kudos to you and the whole crew and cast, and thanks again for providing such marvelous pictures and behind-the-scenes insights. If you see Mr. Chory, tell him he rocked a lot of worlds on Monday night.

Sylar gets a shapeshifting power. Everyone can see where this is leading to from miles away, right? I had hoped for more original writing from the Heroes staff than simply repeating the 5 Years Gone story line.It's a shame that the writers are willing to sacrifice an interesting character like Nathan and one of the core relationships of the show, the one between the Petrelli brothers. This episode showed how much potential the father-daughter duo of Nathan and Claire could have but going for a "shocking death" (that everyone guessed) is of course so much better story telling than exploring character dynamics. That will definitely bring back viewers... /sarcasm.

"Into Asylum" was one of my favorite episodes yet. I loved the closing scenes set to The Animals' "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place." In a future blog entry, could you talk about what goes into making a sequence like that? Who decides there's going to be a music-based scene--the writers? The director? Does the director know during shooting what song is going to be used, or does it all get settled when you guys are editing?

Okay, I know this is ridiculous because the ending of the season is already shot and printed; but PLEASE DON'T KILL NATHAN (AGAIN)!

This is probably - and hopefully - an overreaction, but current spoilers for the remainder of this volume have me really worried. You shouldn't permanently rid yourselves of such a well-loved character. It's unfair to the all those of us who've invested emotion in his journey for three years. Besides, and perhaps on a note more relevant to the story you want to tell, we don't need or want an exact replica of the 'Five Years Gone' universe of doom.

The avenues in which you can work with the Nathan character are so far from exhausted, it truly baffles me that his demise is such an everlasting concern for us fans.

If you have indeed already killed him, you can - you must - find a way to bring him back next season. And, please. One more time won't really affect your drama cred much anymore, anyway. Honestly, I might not stop watching, and I won't kill myself, but I definitely won't be able to trust you guys enough to care about the other characters or stories even half as much as I currently do. :/

Not to mention, Claire's just getting to know him as her father, and Simon and Monty* don't have a spare dad to raise them when Nathan's gone. :( And for goodness's sake, won't somebody think of the children?

:p

Please take this comment as the tongue-in-cheek missive it was intended as. The ideas expressed within, however, are meant in utmost sincerity. In other words, "omg don't take my Nathan from me you guys! Seriously!"

Also, I'm really sorry, because I used to be completely fascinated with the Sylar character, but I am significantly doubting my ability to sit through an entire volume depicting his road, and his own alone, to redemption. As noble a theme as that may be, and as interesting a path it could be to take that character on, it will be incredibly difficult for me to stomach if the crimes he years to be redempted of include murdering Nathan.

On the other hand, if I'm the biggest paranoid nutjob you've ever heard from in your life, and Nathan does actually live to see Volume 5? I certainly hope he won't be magically forgiven for his questionable deeds. I think it might make for interesting contrasts if, along with Sylar and - if applicable - HRG or Tracy, Nathan also attempted to atone for his earlier behavior.

See? That's just one exemple of what to do with him.

But honestly. I'll have a hard time getting past it if Sylar kills him. I made myself get past the (rather nonsensical) disintegration of Adam because I still had faith in you guys. Don't fail me now.

OMG, GREAT EPISODE! the emotions felt between claire/nathan and peter/angela were honest and revealed something new about each of their characters. having many two-people scenes isn't that common, but i do like it! :)

i cannot express how EXCITED i am about seeing sylar and danko's storyline unfold!!! there were so many unexpected twists, and the scene where the shapeshifter was killed was GENIUS, i never saw it coming! sylar is much, much more dangerous now... it's so bad for the heroes but will make such an incredible storyline! EEE!!! :O :D

i also loved Claire and Nathan's storyline..i think that nathan reveaaled his true feelings, and i hope he will try to make things right. it was also really sweet how he bought back claire's necklace for her, too.

peter and angela's mother-son relationship is complex and emotional, and it was good to see angela confess the weight she feels on her shoulders. maybe now that it is out in the open, she can work towards mending her family's broken relationships.

i saw the preview for next week's episode, and am intrigued! i am really interested in learning more about who angela petrelli is and the mysteries surrounding her past... and am also very excited to see how danko and sylar's story unfolds!

i have to say that after last weeks amazing ep this one seems a bit of a letdown.

The thing is if you compare this and last weeks eps it is VERY obvious that two different directors worked on it; it feels like two different tv shows! Isn't what makes heroes heroes the little touches, like the transitions between scenes (daphne-flying-to-dying was beautiful) and clever extreme camera angles. The music at the end of this ep seemed more appropriate for less.. epic shows like Chuck or CSI.

I appreciate though that it had to be done with a lot of time constraints. And the script was quite clever.

I know this is an ensemble cast, but what have you got against Mohinder? I've sat through 3 Mohinderless eps and one that might well have been and I'm getting mighty peeved! Please make use of him, he brightens up my day!

I honestly thought this episode was one of the best in the whole series of Heroes but I quite like the variations in styles of the episodes and don't wish for all episodes to be like this. The ending to Into Asylum was brilliant, it really made me smile. The song was a nice touch too.

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